[Editor: This photo, of a female member of the Australian military, is from the era of the Second World War (1939-1945). The photo is undated.]
Lots of love
[Front of photo]
[Photo of a female member of the Australian military.]
[Handwritten text]
To Danny
lots of love
Joe.
[Reverse of photo]
Harold Mottek
Exclusive portraiture
2nd floor
272 Bourke St., Melbourne, C.1.
Central
3539
Source:
Original document
Editor’s notes:
Dimensions (approximate): 85 mm. (width), 121 mm. (height).
The woman in the photo is presumably a member of the Australian Women’s Army Service.
Identifying information about the manufacturer is stamped on the back of the postcard, although the text is very faint. The address has been confirmed with newspaper advertisements from the same time period (the stamped phone number on the postcard is too faint to make out, but has been obtained from advertisements for the studio). The photograph was taken at the studio of Harold Mottek, who was a Jewish German who immigrated to Australia in 1938 (during the period when the NSDAP, or Nazi Party, was in power, 1933-1945; although prior to the Second World War, 1939-1945).
See: 1) “A portrait artist”, The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne, Vic.), 2 September 1938, p. 10
2) “Harold Mottek” (advertisement), The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne, Vic.), 23 June 1939, p. 7 [“272 Bourke Street., Cr. Swanston St. 2nd Fl. Melbourne. ’Phone Central 3539”]
Australian Women’s Army Service = (commonly abbreviated as “AWAS”) a female military organisation which was formed in 1941 so as to enable women to replace men in non-combat roles, thus freeing up men for service with combat units; following the end of the Second World War (1939-1945) the government decided that the AWAS was no longer needed, and the organisation was disbanded in 1947
See: 1) “Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS)”, Australian War Memorial (Canberra)
2) “Women’s Army services”, Australian War Memorial (Canberra)
3) “Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) and Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC)” (archived), Australian War Memorial (Canberra)
4) “Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) (1941 – 1947)”, The Australian Women’s Register
5) “Australian Women’s Army Service”, Wikipedia
NSDAP = an abbreviation of Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (the National Socialist German Workers’ Party), also known as the Nazi Party, a German political party which was formed in 1920 by Anton Drexler (1884-1942), who was replaced as party chairman in 1921 by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), under whose leadership the party attained power in 1933
My mother Vera, and her mother, Ada, took me to be photographed by Mottek in 1941. They wore exceptionally silly hats for their photograph and Mottek seems to have made the most of the occasion in posing them. The version I have is a copy, the original seems to have been lost. There is also a photo of myself, which he signed and dated with the year.